Nanga Character Analysis

3. Nanga and Kurtz as two Corrupt Leaders :
Achebe’s Nanga and Conrad’s Kurtz are two remarkable figures. Both are educated, Nanga is minister of culture and Kurtz is at the head of a big trading company of Ivory, a gifted man, and an artist. Both of them have optimistic theories and flourishing projects for Africa. At the beginning of each novel, the two characters, Nanga and Kurtz, are looking for the welfare of the common man. Nanga is supposed to be “the man of the people” , that is the man who looks for the wellbeing of the common people, and Kurtz is supposed to be the bringer of the Christian blessing and the Western civilization

His greed and evil nature leads him to use aggressive methods. Nanga tries to bribe Odili and to persuade him to give up politics. As Odili refuses, he is beaten bitterly and hospitalised, his father is fired from his office, his friend Max is killed. From Nanga’s deeds, it is obvious that he is turned into corrupt fierce leader. He is ready to destroy everything and everyone who can hinder him to reach his

In the first stage, Nanga is still a handsome innocent teacher. In the second, he is an admired politician. Odili himself confesses : “ I found myself admiring the man …”(A Man of the People 11). Finally, in the third stage, Nanga is a mediocre and corrupt politician “ Honourable Thief Nanga” rather than “Honourable Chief Nanga”. The three states that Gikandi speaks about seem to echo the three stations described in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow, the narrator, passes through three “stations” : “ the Outer station, the Central station, and the Inner station”. As he gets from a station to another, scenes of “exploitation” and “torture” become quite obvious, and the level of evil increases. They can also be applied on Kurtz’s evolution. First, Kurtz is a widely cultivated man, a painter, a musician. At this stage Kurtz is the best holder of Western culture and of “The White Man’s Burden” which consists in “[bringing] light to the heart of darkness, to tribal heart hunters performing weird ceremonies. ” (No Longer at Ease 96). Then, as soon as he lives in wilderness, he starts changing to a powerful figure among the natives. He becomes a godlike figure, almost worshiped by the natives. Finally,